Leadership—
Board & Management
Our highly qualified management team has decades of experience in all facets of the diamond industry.
CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER
Neil Kaner
Mr Kaner is a qualified mining engineer with over 35 years of operational, corporate and consulting experience predominantly in diamond and base metals mining in Southern Africa, Asia and Australia. He has been involved in developing new mines in Botswana and Lesotho and has held senior operational and technical roles with De Beers and Gem Diamonds. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Neil is a Director of Australian Natural Diamonds Pty Ltd a wholly owned subsidiary of Lucapa Diamond Company.
GROUP MINERAL RESOURCE MANAGER
Richard Price
Richard Price is a geologist with almost 35 years’ experience in the diamond mining and exploration industry. Mr Price has extensive experience in diamond exploration, diamond evaluation projects and diamond mine production in Australia and Southern Africa. He worked for De Beers for 21 years in a range of roles, covering exploration, resource evaluation for both kimberlite pipes and tailings, and mine production. He was Geological Evaluation Projects Manager at Jwaneng Diamond Mine in Botswana where he managed a major resource evaluation project, and was Mineral Resource Manager at Kimberley Diamond Company. He has been with Lucapa for seven years with responsibility for exploration and mineral resource management, and is the company’s Competent Person for JORC reporting requirements. Mr Price holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) Exploration and Mining Geology from Cardiff University and is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
chief financial officer
Johan van Wyk
Mr van Wyk has more than 30 years’ experience in corporate finance, financial reporting and related risk management. This includes senior financial positions held at the JSE-listed industrial group Barloworld Limited in Johannesburg, South Africa. He relocated to Australia in 2009 and recent positions held have predominantly been in the diamond industry. Mr van Wyk joined Lucapa in 2016 and holds a Bachelor of Accounting Science Honours (B.Compt Honours) degree from the University of South Africa and is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.
COMPANY SECRETARY
Mark Clements
Mr Clements holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Western Australia. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a member of both the Australian Institute Company Directors and the Chartered Governance Institute. Mr Clements currently holds the position of company secretary and non-executive director of Emerald Resources NL and company secretary and non-executive Chairman of Alterra Ltd and has experience in corporate finance, accounting and administration, capital raising and ASX Compliance and regulatory requirements.
Group operations manager
Alex Kidman
Mr Kidman is a geologist with over 15 years’ experience in the diamond mining industry, having started his career exploring for alluvial diamonds in Angola, he joined the Gem Diamonds group in 2006 where he held a number of technical and project management roles throughout the company. He subsequently settled in Australia working for the Ellendale mine and consulting on other Australian diamond projects before joining Lucapa in 2017. Mr Kidman has experience operating in multiple jurisdictions around the world including Angola, DRC, Botswana, Indonesia, Australia, South Africa and Lesotho. He holds a Masters in Science (Geology) from the University of Birmingham and is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Alex is a Director of Australian Natural Diamonds Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lucapa Diamond Company.
HEAD OF INVESTOR RELATIONS
AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Candice Sgroi
Ms Sgroi has more than 15 years’ experience in investor and corporate communications working for publicly listed companies in the mining sector in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Prior to moving into the corporate world, Candice was a broadcast journalist in Australia and the UK. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) from the University of Queensland, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Corporate Governance from the Governance Institute of Australia and an Executive MBA from the Queensland University of Technology.
